The Dublin market was quiet yesterday, with trading volumes relatively low. Many dealers cited Elan Corporation's falling share price as the main reason for the small overall fall in the ISEQ.
The market was said to be still "number crunching" the details of the company's acquisition of Sano Corporation for $375 million (£268 million), but the details of the takeover and the company's neutral earnings forecast dragged the share price down from 3695p to 3450p.
"The Elan acquisition, because it is quite a large stock, has tended to bring the whole market down," commented one dealer. This combined with the generally slow day and the selling of Elan shares in New York gave added impetus for Dublin to trade the stock down.
The announcement by Water- ford Wedgewood that it had gained a 51.58 per cent controlling interest in porcelain company, Rosenthal, was said to be an important move by dealers in terms of the future performance of the shares.
While trading was limited yesterday, closing almost unchanged at 87p, the Rosenthal move and the £27 million rationalisation programme of its British operations, was said to give the stock plenty of future potential.
"The company is taking about a total of £44 million in improved profit over three years as a result of this deal and that is good for the stock," commented one dealer.
A significant amount of trading took place in Smurfit shares, although most of this was caused by "random sellers coming into the market", said one dealer.
However there continues to be some worries about paper price and developments in the United States. The shares closed down 3p, at a flat 194p.
Elsewhere, the established trend of brisk trading in the financial leaders continued with Bank of Ireland rising from 1032p to 1040, before losing some momentum, to close at 1035p. Last week it reached a record high of 1050p.
There was steady trading in AIB shares, but not much upward movement by the end of the day, with the shares closing at 661p.
Meanwhile, Donegal Creameries got its first full week on the exchange off to a good start, rising from 225p to close at 240p.
The other main movers were CRH, which closed up 3p at 818p, Fyffes up 1p to close at 110p, Grafton down 25p to close at 1300p, Irish Permanent down 5p at 715p, Kerry down 15p to 755p and Tullow, up 7p from 160p.
